THE FA CUP’S GREATEST GIANTKILLING
WITH our Non-League clubs appearing in the FA Cup First Round this weekend, it is nice to reflect on what I feel was the greatest giantkilling of all-time…
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Yeovil Town 2 Sunderland 1
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Saturday 29th January 1949, FA Cup Fourth Round
Fabled stuff featuring Southern League members Yeovil Town. Their opponents Sunderland were in the top flight and fielded England international star Len Shackleton.
He was a maverick forward nicknamed ‘Clown Prince of Soccer’ having been signed from Newcastle United a year previously for £20,500 - the British record transfer fee back then.
However the bumper Somerset crowd of 17,123 relished a momentous Cup shock affording the sloping Huish pitch its indelible place in football folklore. Yeovil player-manager Alec Stock led by example in scoring the opening goal on a foggy day.
The Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette newspaper’s damning match report read:
“Sunderland were certainly humiliated. But whatever Yeovil were, they were not giantkiller on Saturday for there were no giants to kill.
“If Sunderland could play worse, then I should not like to see them. As for Len Shackleton, it must have been his worst game ever, for he was the poorest forward on the field on Saturday.”
Alas in Round Five, some 81,565 spectators witnessed the plucky Non-League outfit defeated 8-0 by Manchester United at Maine Road (Old Trafford was still badly damaged from bombing during the Second World War).
Yeovil subsequently went on to finish eighth in the Southern League at the end of 1948/49.
Indeed it was the FA Cup run which made Stock famous. He memorably spoke clipped military tones - eventually providing specific inspiration for television comedy character Ron Manager on The Fast Show.
Looking back in later years on Yeovil’s epic FA Cup exploits, Stock said: “We beat Bury 3-1 at Huish the Third Round. They were top of the Second Division and we played very well.
“At this stage we were in the groove. Cup football was for us and next up came Sunderland.
“National newspaper reporters cottoned on to the fact we had a slope on the ground. It was actually eight feet from side to side. Suddenly it became a huge talking point and the entire football media wanted to preview our match against Sunderland. All the columnists, everybody.
“One of the reporters mistakenly started saying there was a 14 feet drop across our pitch! Then everyone else built the story up as it went on and on and on.
“Lovely! Beautiful publicity! When the Sunderland players finally walked into Huish from the Manor Hotel before the game, they all believed those exaggerated reports about the slope! They thought to themselves: ‘Oh hell! What have we come to here?’
“My players were fully aware of how to play on the pitch. You had to keep the ball on the top wing.
“Right on the top because you could attack better from there. My winger on that side didn’t stray more than two inches inside the touchline and we kept thumping the ball up to him. The other side of the pitch was a strict no go area for us.
“I told my lads to get stuck in and make a few a few tackles early on. You needed the stamina of a horse to last on our playing surface with all the clinging mud. It wasn’t just mud. It was thick Somerset mud! I knew we could capitalise on the fears of Sunderland’s players and we did.”
Stock went on to manage Leyton Orient, AS Roma, Queens Park Rangers, Luton Town, Fulham and AFC Bournemouth.
He was 84 years old when he died on 16th April 2001.
SUPERSTAR SHOT THE TABLE
IN the 1970’s, Superstars was an entertaining TV show which pitted elite athletes from different sports against one another in a series of events resembling a decathlon.
Points were awarded for the position in which the competitor placed in each event. The person accumulating most points at the end would triumphantly be declared Superstars champion.
My favourite footballer was Queens Park Rangers legend Stanley Bowles and I remember telling everyone at school that Stan was going to be on Superstars. I naively thought he could win and I was really looking forward to it.
What I didn’t realise (until I worked on his autobiography many years later) was Stan had a terrible hangover after going out for a few drinks the night before with racing driver James Hunt.
Anyway I sat down to watch the television and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
When Stan did the canoeing, his canoe overturned.
Then the shooting competition. You were supposed to lift the gun up, put it back down on the table, lift it up again and fire at a target. But Stan accidentally shot a bullet down into the table straight away and was lucky he didn’t blow his foot off.
In effect, he achieved the worst ever record on Superstars: just seven points. I had to go into school the next day and explain Stan’s antics to an assortment of Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United fans who were laughing at me.
*Credit for the photos in this article belongs to Tony Incenzo*
